"Dove of Peace" over the "Kitty Hawk": a reconnaissance aircraft, shame the American fleet, remains in the ranks
This aircraft appeared in the ranks of the domestic air force in the mid 1980-s. He still remains in the battle post, coping well with the tasks before him. He is already given monuments, paying tribute to merit and opportunities. He participated in several armed conflicts, but he was brought to glory in peacetime. Abroad, he became widely known when the American carrier-carrier "confounded".
Tactical reconnaissance aircraft in the USSR were often created by modernizing fighters and bombers that were already mass-produced. In 1950-s, such aircraft became IL-28Р (production in 1949 – 1955, removed from service at the beginning of 1960-s), created on the basis of the first Soviet jet bomber Il-28. He was replaced by the machines of the Yakovlev design bureau: first Yak-27Р (production in 1958 – 1962, removed from service in the middle of 1970-ies) based on the anti-aircraft fighter-interceptor Yak-27, then Yak-28Р (production in 1966 – 1970 years, decommissioned 1994 year), the basis for which served as a supersonic bomber Yak-28. By the way, the Yak-28Р for the complete absence of weapons on board received in the troops the humorous nickname "dove of peace." At the same time, a tactical reconnaissance aircraft MiG-21Р (production in 1965 – 1971, removed from service at the beginning of 1990-s), created on the basis of the all-weather interceptor MiG-21PF, was used. However, he had insufficient range for the scout.
In the middle of 1980-s, the Su-24MR aircraft created by the Sukhoi Design Bureau, a branch of the Sukhoi company, was able to replace them by providing new tactical intelligence capabilities.
In the lens - flight deck
The aircraft carrier "Kitty Hawk" in the photo of Russian pilots, made from the board of the Su-24MR.
Morning October 17, 2000. The region of the Sea of Japan between the island of Hokkaido and the Primorsky Territory. The Russian coast is about 300 km away. The American aircraft carrier "Kitty Hawk" (CV-63 USS Kitty Hawk) is heading towards the Republic of Korea, where the US-Korean Foal Eagle 25 exercises are to begin in the Busan area on October 2000. The ship is at a low speed, while at the same time restocking fuel from the nearby tanker. What happened next is better described by a US naval pilot, whose letter was posted on the Internet on December 9, 2000 and was discussed by many aviation forums. The only thing the recipient of the letter did was to remove the pilot's name and also soften a number of his strong expressions:
“... Swimming was quite easy and interesting: 54 days at sea, 40 - in the port and 45 flight hours in just one month! Yeah, we were flying our asses! Since I was one of the three squadron commanders with all my supercrusts, I flew a lot.
I was on the bridge to queue to control the ship, as there are a bunch of O-5 [captains of 2 rank / lieutenant colonels - hereinafter in brackets the comments of the letter recipient] and several O-4 [captains of 3 rank / major] who gain themselves “mooring” skills.
This is a way to be a superhero when you give the commands “steering right” and “left steering”, “hey, this is the speed control knob, dude” and you scratch next to the supply ship during UNREPS [restocking operation]. You do this under the watchful eye of the captain of the ship and the CDO [duty officer of the O-5 class, usually navigator or assistant navigator].
So, I sit there and talk about any garbage with my partner, who also gets his “qualification”. Here we get a box call from the CIC [information center of combat operations]. They say: "Sir, we have signs of the activity of Russian fighters."
The captain says to him: “We launch combat-ready fighters”. The guy responds that they can only announce “30 Alert” [crash within 30 minutes after notification]. The captain ohrenevaet and says: "Run all that we have." I ran to the navigator's phone and called the SDO [duty officer of the squadron]. It wasn't our squadron on duty that day, so I told him to find out who was on duty and have them lift their asses and rush to the flight deck [only 7 Alarm assumes that the pilots are on duty on the flight deck and are ready to climb air; “30 Alarm” means they are in the duty room].
In any case, after 40 minutes after the CO issued a warning, the Russians
Su-27 Flanker and Su-24 Fencer, making 920 km / h, take place in 60 meters directly above the Kitty Hawk wheelhouse. It was like in the movie “Top Gun”! The captain on the bridge spilled his coffee on the shoes, everyone says: “Your mother!” At that moment I looked at the captain, his face was purple. He looked like he was dumping his wife, who was raped by a marine. Russian fighters made two more high-speed flights at low altitude, before we finally lifted the first aircraft, the EA-6B Prowler [electronic warfare and reconnaissance aircraft] from the deck. Exactly! We picked up the fucking Prowler, and he was alone with the Flanker [Su-27] right in front of the ship. Flanker went to his tail, sort of like a bear who winks at a little hare before he ate it. He [Prowler] called for help before finally taking to the air Hornet [F / A-18] from our sister squadron - I literally use this term because they looked like a bunch of fucked girls flirting with Russians , - to perform the interception. But it was too late. The whole team, raising their heads, watched the Russians mocking our wretched attempt to stop them.
Funny part stories was that the admiral and the CAG [commander of the aircraft carrier aviation group] were at that time at the morning meeting in the Command Room, where they were interrupted by the deafening roar of the Russians circling over the aircraft carrier's cabin. An officer from the CAG headquarters told me later that they looked at each other, at the flight plan, made sure that we did not have any flights scheduled for the next few hours, and said: “What was that?”
Four days later, the Russian intelligence service sent an email to the commander of the Kitty Hawk letter, enclosing photos of it, in which our pilots were rushing around the flight deck, desperately trying to lift airplanes into the air. I’m quite sure that we had the fucking loser boy who was responsible for the air defense of our battle group [the officer in charge of managing the ship and supporting combat operations] were fired. The irony is also in the fact that just a few weeks before this incident, a change of admiral's command took place ... Higher naval officers then symbolically knelt all our aviation wing, keeping it around the clock in the air, as if it were World War II times.
Yesterday, this story sucked all Russian and Japanese newspapers. The Russians even awarded them a medal for their achievements. What a fucking shame! I felt as if I were from “Naughty Bears” (this is a comedy film about the worst teenage baseball team “Bears.” - Ed.), And we had our asses kicked, but I didn’t even get off the bench to help ... ”.
A small clarification: two Su-24МР from the 799-th separate reconnaissance aviation regiment, based at the Varfolomeevka airfield (near Vladivostok), participated in that flight over the Kitty Hawk deck. It was they who made the very pictures that were then kindly sent to the aircraft carrier’s website by e-mail. According to the then commander-in-chief of the Russian Air Force, Anatoly Karnukov, “it was a planned reconnaissance mission, during which, however, unusual tasks were solved.” At the same time, no international agreements were violated by the Russian side. According to the commander-in-chief, the intelligence results “were impressive”: in the Su-24MR images, you could see how the sailors immediately began to cut the hoses connecting the aircraft carrier to the tanker, because they decided that they were being attacked and tried to avoid a fire due to fuel spills.
"The most difficult aircraft"
Preparing for performance at the Aviadarts international flying skill competition.
From the beginning of the 1960-ies in the design bureau of Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi a new front-line bomber was developed. This machine was supposed to occupy a niche between the Su-7 / Su-17 fighter-bombers and the Tu-22 / Tu-22М long-range bombers. However, the project, which received the internal designation T-6 in the Design Bureau, was born quite difficult. Here's how Oleg Sergeevich Samoilovich, who worked in the Sukhoi Design Bureau since February 1957 of the year (in 1982 – 1983 years, he was first deputy general designer of the OKB, and from 1983 to 1985 year - deputy general designer of the OKB) wrote about this: “The military men urged: rather, rather, soon ... Haste led to errors at almost all stages of the creation of the machine - from design to testing. Therefore, Su-24, in my opinion, is the most difficult aircraft of our design bureau. ”
After a long stage of coordination of the technical task, it was only in August 1968 of the year that the decision of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR to create the Su-24 with a variable geometry wing was issued. “The plane was designed and built in just 26 months, its first flight took place in January 1972, and in March it was decided to launch the Su-24 series,” Samoylovich said. “And there were three more years of intense flight tests ahead.”
Flight tests Su-24 also evolved very difficult, there were a large number of incidents. “In total, 10 aircraft were lost, including the fault of the design - three, all the rest were due to the AL-21F3 engine,” Samoilovich specifies. - In addition, four Su-24M aircraft were lost in flight tests. Unfortunately, this was accompanied by the death of people: 13 test pilots and navigators died. Eight people were catapulted and survived. ”
Due to the delay in creating the Su-24, the creation on its basis of a tactical intelligence officer was constantly postponed. Although the pre-sketch design of such a modification began in August 1965 of the year, only in 1970 did the T-58MR appear on the basis of the first production version of the Su-24.
At the same time, work began on the creation of specialized equipment and its integration into the aircraft’s on-board complex. However, a project for the upgraded Su-24M soon appeared in the Sukhoi Design Bureau.
Therefore, the T-58MR project remained on paper, and in 1975, the development of the Su-24MR scout began on the basis of the Su-24М. Its full-scale design began only in the 1978 year.
The terms of reference for the Su-24MR provided for the creation of a machine capable of performing all types of reconnaissance up to 400 km beyond the front line at any time of the day, in all weather conditions and in the conditions of countering a strong enemy air defense. In July, test pilot 1980, Anatoly Ivanov, made the first flight on the prototype of the reconnaissance unit Т6МР-26. The Su-24MR state tests ended in 1982, and a year later the Novosibirsk Aviation Plant named after A.G. V.P. Chkalov assembled the first serial Su-24МР.
Complicated cargo
23 August 2016, on the eve of the city’s day, in the “gas capital” of Russia - the city of New Urengoy - a grand opening of the exposition of military equipment took place on Memory Square. Its main exhibit was the Su-24MR aircraft.
The project was initiated by several New Urengoy entrepreneurs who applied to the city administration in December 2015. The choice of aircraft type was dictated by recent events in the Syrian Arab Republic. 24 November 2015 of the year when performing a combat mission over the territory of Syria near the border with Turkey, an air-to-air missile from the F-16 aircraft of the Turkish Air Force shot down a Russian Su-24 aircraft. Both pilots ejected. Pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Peshkov died while descending on a parachute as a result of shelling from the ground; navigator Captain Konstantin Murakhtin was evacuated to Khmeimim airbase.
“The Central Military District received a letter from the head of Novy Urengoy asking for a written off Su-24,” the district press service reported. “The plane provided the Shagol airfield in Chelyabinsk.” Since the autumn of 2010, the 6980-I air base (the former 2 th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment), armed with Su-24M bombers and Su-24MR reconnaissance aircraft, is based there. The base was able to allocate the new Uraingoyans not the same Su-24М that was shot down in Syria, but the decommissioned Su-24МР.
This aircraft with a tail number 37 and registration number RF-91814 was dismantled in April 2015 of the year (in the same year its registration number was transferred to one of the Su-30CM fighters). “The aircraft was demilitarized beforehand, weapons were removed from it,” the district press service noted.
The Su-24MR transportation from Chelyabinsk to Novy Urengoy required a significant amount - approximately 1,3 million rubles. December 14 on Novourengoy media was spread information about the fundraising. Most of them were identified by the initiative group of entrepreneurs. The transportation of the aircraft disassembled by parts began on January 4, and on Christmas morning it had already arrived in New Urengoy. For three days, the convoy of cars covered the distance in 2 100 km.
The first trawl, according to truckers, caused the most problems: its length was 26 m, the very glider of the aircraft on it was 20 with a width of more than 5 m. Wings arrived on board the second heavy truck. The total weight is 16 t. “The majority of those who met on the way, including the traffic police, assisted us,” says Gennady Pankov, an employee of the NG - Service group of companies, who is responsible for transportation. - In front of the Surgut bridge, the first trawl was not able to stand on the scales in size. We left, warned that we are carrying such a load. For the sake of us stopped all traffic on the bridge of Surgut. We were alone, nobody else was moving along this bridge. ”
Disassembled, shrouded Su-24 was transported to the base of the Novy Urengoy drilling company "NG - Service". There, over half a year the car was assembled, painted, tidied up individual parts. After the restoration, the 16-ton exhibit was transported to Memory Square. “The memorial aircraft was installed for the purpose of patriotic education of young people, increasing pride in the defense-industrial complex of Russia,” the press service of the Novy Urengoy administration said.
For the senior pilot, Major Oleg Belousov, it was not just an exhibit. Once he lifted this particular car into the air. On it, he made a lot of sorties. Oleg Belousov specially came to New Urengoy for the grand opening of the exhibition. “This is especially important for me, I flew exactly on this plane,” said Oleg Belousov after the ceremony. “It is not sawn and remelted, but stands as an exhibit, bringing up patriotic feelings in young people.”
"Lone Warrior"
At the Chelyabinsk airport Shagol Su-24MR in jubilee color: its right side is dedicated to the Orsha airbase - the heiress of the fighting traditions of the 2 Guards bomber Orsha regiment.
Su-24MR became the first aircraft in the USSR capable of conducting species, radio engineering and radiation reconnaissance. The composition of the on-board reconnaissance complex included side-looking radar (radar), heating and television equipment, panoramic and advanced cameras, and electronic reconnaissance equipment. From the point of view of the complexity of the obtained intelligence, the Su-24MR still has no competitors. It differed from the serial Su-24 by a shorter fuselage, a nose radio-transparent fairing of a simplified form, under which only the radar following the terrain is installed. There is no gun on the scout. On the bottom surface of the fuselage protruding fairings with windows for optical reconnaissance equipment are equipped. Containers with reconnaissance equipment are suspended on the central ventral pylon, on two pylons under the fixed parts of the wing - additional fuel tanks. On the pylon under the right movable wing of the wing there is a container with radiation reconnaissance equipment. This container is quite rarely removed from the Su-24MR, becoming the main external difference between a scout and a bomber.
The Su-24MR armament consists of only two air-to-air guided missiles.
P-60 / 50М, which are suspended on a pylon under the left wing wing console. For the lack of offensive weapons, the Su-24MR, as in its time the Yak-28Р, was nicknamed “the dove of peace” in parts.
Su-24MR entered service with separate reconnaissance air regiments of the Air Force and Navy Aviation. Its first use in hostilities occurred in November 1992 of the year: four vehicles performed reconnaissance flights in the zone of the Ossetian-Ingush conflict. Following this, in 1990 – 2000-ies, Su-24MR conducted reconnaissance in Chechnya, Tajikistan, and also carried out reconnaissance flights along the borders with Georgia. Two vehicles were shot down over Chechnya by portable anti-aircraft missiles. After these losses, the Su-24MR crews at their own risk “corrected” their combat tactics — they began to fly even lower (at altitudes of the order of 100 – 150 m) and faster (to 900 km / h). The option of escorting Su-24MR fighters was considered, but it turned out that Su-27 and MiG-29 are able to stay on this mode in the same system with a scout for just a few minutes. So Su-24MR remained lonely warriors - flights for reconnaissance are carried out by single aircraft.
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